Tag: Data

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Labor analytics and reporting starts with access to the right data

hourly, fair workweek, labor analytics

Labor analytics and reporting are vital to making informed decisions for better efficiency and cost savings. 

However, it might be easier said than done. Companies grapple with numerous issues surrounding labor analytics, from tracking the information they need to generating reports to making timely decisions that will actually impact their bottom line.

Lack of insight and failure to share analytics with frontline managers

It all begins with access to the right data. A common problem among companies is that they don’t have enough information to help them run an efficient operation and save money. 

“While most companies know how much labor hours they’re scheduling, they face a challenge with comparing that with other vital areas such as budgets, predictable revenue and historical information,” said Travis Kohlmeyer, vice president of sales at Workforce.com. 

Also read: The fair workweek squeeze on employee scheduling

Another issue is providing frontline managers with access to analytics, the very people who are creating the schedules and running operations. It’s crucial to provide them the analytical information before the fact or else data can only help after the money has been spent. 

“If you don’t give managers the tools they need to schedule more effectively, historical costs tend to repeat themselves,” Kohlmeyer said. 

Inability to capture data in real time

Leveraging labor analytics has a lot to do with how timely it is acted upon. Most companies face difficulties with capturing data in real time. 

“This means managers and team leaders can’t make game-time decisions,” Kohlmeyer said. “If a company has to wait for 30 days to get their labor analytics, it’s basically useless. Yes, you can tell your employees to shape up here and there but not providing the insight to help them in the process tends to be less effective.” 

Managers can better optimize operations when they’re able to see real-time costs and revenue throughout the day. With this insight available, managers can quickly see the peaks and valleys, decide whether to ask more employees to come in or let staff go home and ensure that the operation as a whole is cost-efficient. 

Difficulty in generating and customizing reports

Reports out of data analytics provide a big picture view essential for labor forecasting and making organizational decisions. Sometimes companies fail to do this because generating and customizing reports tend to be a tedious task, automated reports don’t match their needs or they don’t have a mechanism for it at all. 

“Every company is different, even those in the same industry,” Kohlmeyer explained.  “Typically, most solutions can provide basic cost reports, but you need more than that to better optimize your operation. Having the technology that generates reports specific to key components of your business is harder to come by and where the bottom line is lacking.”

Overcoming labor analytics and reporting challenges

Having the right technology can address pain points that come with labor analytics and reporting. “One of the key advantages of the Workforce.com platform is its ability to give customers accurate labor expenses real-time. With the real-time alerts and advanced reporting, customers gain insights into their labor expenses and proactively plan ahead in the moment and in the longer term,” said Leon Pearce, lead software engineer at Workforce.com. 

Being able to interpret labor expenses is helpful, but when you’re able to do so in real-time, it’s a game changer. With live insights, Workforce.com analyzes and interprets labor data even when staff are still on their shift. “It empowers managers to make strong decisions on the fly, think like a business owner and keep staff levels optimal for demand,” Pearce said. 

Labor analytics are also crucial to anticipating demand and staying on top of a budget. Workforce.com gives a strong projection in that regard, allowing companies to add in their actual labor budget in dollars. 

“This means that the platform can project real expenses of your schedule based on actual labor interpretation, giving you confidence that your labor expenses will be aligned with your budget,” Pearce said. 

Employee scheduling validations can be configured into the platform to help managers avoid building schedules that can incur potential unnecessary labor expenses such as overtime and missed breaks. 

Access to data and being able to get insights from it is vital to any business. For large operations, it can be harder with different areas and variables at play. Whether it’s improving clock punches, addressing understaffing leading to overtime, spotting missing breaks leading to compliance penalties, employers can handle such issues with full access to their data. 

“Workforce.com’s advanced reporting gives businesses access to all of their data and provides an easy to use tool for creating reports using exactly the information they need to make strong proactive decisions,” Pearce said. 

Data only becomes powerful when it is properly interpreted; this aids in better decisions and cost savings. Workforce.com is built to do precisely that. See our reporting solutions in action and book a demo or sign up for a free trial today.

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‘Harmonizing’ to Keep HR Technology Hitting the Same Note

Employee demand for consumer-like experiences, the increasing use of people analytics and the falling costs of hardware and software are dramatically driving the spread of HR technology. By 2025, the HR management systems market is expected to grow to $30 billion, more than doubling the $12.6 billion recorded in 2016, according to Grand View Research.

Faced with a mind-boggling array of solutions, encompassing everything from full talent-management suites to narrowly focused products that measure components of employee engagement, both technology vendors and customers are thinking more and more about “harmonization.”

In HR technology-speak, harmonization is the knitting together of products so users benefit from a single experience, as well as a data set that cuts across organizational and technical silos. The idea “is definitely something that’s become more prevalent,” said Jeremy Ames, president of Hive Tech HR, a Massachusetts-based HR technology consultant.

Ames believes it’s difficult for organizations to be served by one platform that does everything. At the same time, systems that aren’t properly connected will leave gaps in information and processes. Employers that aren’t careful are “going to have so many disjointed processes and experiences that it becomes a mess and a maintenance nightmare,” he said.

According to research by engagement platform provider Reward Gateway, 87 percent of HR professionals either want or are pursuing ways to integrate new tools into their existing ecosystem. Harmonization, said Will Tracz, the company’s chief technical architect, is about efficiency and creating a seamless employee journey.

“If you consider it from an IT perspective, there’s great pressure within organizations to save time and streamline,” he said. “You’ve got different systems at different parts of the journey, from an applicant tracking system that candidates come into, through to onboarding, to setting up communications to engage [employees] from platforms that sit alongside.”

First, Don’t Get in the Way

As a result, organizations are hunting for solutions that are effective, efficient and consistent, Tracz said. Most especially, HR doesn’t want to implement systems that get in the way of employees doing their job. Harmonization, Tracz said, is about providing a best-in-class experience while making it easy for HR to “seamlessly work through the life cycle without interrupting the employees’ days.”

Also read: Human Resources Technology Customers Insist on High-Touch Vendors

However, there’s more to harmonization than user experience. The information used by the system to provide self-service, reports and analytics must be brought together in a way that creates what data scientists call “a single source of truth.”

Traditionally, functions across the organization have relied on their own systems to get their work done. That can make analyzing data more difficult and reporting more prone to inconsistencies and errors.

For example, Ames said, dissecting data becomes more complex when 20 percent of it is drawn from the talent acquisition system, 30 percent from the learning management system and the remainder by the performance management platform.

“Sometimes that need to harmonize from a reporting standpoint is where the need to harmonize overall can start,” he said.

Core of Data Governance

That means harmonization is a data-​governance issue as well as a technical challenge, said David Ricciardi, president of data strategy and analytics firm Proximo.

On the back end, for example, simple data points like an employee’s email address and contact information must be consistent across systems. On the front end, a single vocabulary should be employed across user interfaces and reports, to the point where it’s even incorporated into PowerPoints presented to the CEO.

“That’s harmonization,” Ricciardi said. “They’re all on the same note. They all mean the exact same thing. They have the same sound, the same pitch.” For that to happen, every data point or term must be compiled into a business glossary, where every meaning is defined and every place it’s used is documented. “It’s a complex effort,” he said.

“Pretty much what you’ve got to do is work with the system of record, and when important events happen, have them synchronize between systems in as close to real time as possible,” Tracz said. In some cases, that may mean a weekly batch file update. In others, it’s enabling one system to reach out to others to let them know changes have been made. In either case, it also means reflecting changes as quickly as possible.

As important as the need for consistency might be, not everyone sees an industrywide wave rolling toward harmonization. A year ago, Ames “felt strongly” that harmonization was gaining momentum because many full-suite vendors weren’t paying close attention to narrower tools. Consequently, customers were tempted to pursue the best of all worlds, which required building mechanisms for different systems to speak to each other.

Today, however, “I think some of the biggest vendors are making more of an effort to make sure they’re not being bypassed,” Ames said. Full-suite vendors are trying to mitigate their risk by building new features themselves or acquiring them.

“There’s always going to be an appetite for both sides of it,” Ames said. “But right now I don’t feel a huge push in one direction or the other.”